The students of TISS, Hyderabad have released a statement regarding the writ petition they've fined in the Telangana High Court. They state that six students of TISS, Hyderabad have filed the writ petition (Mandamus) asking the court to intervene and order TISS to revoke its decision of declaring sine die closure of the campus.
The students provided a background to the events beginning from the protests that started on July 8 to their closed-door meeting with the administration on July 11. They go on to state that on July 14, after more students had joined the hunger strike, the Management Committee met the ten members of the students' body. "However, when the meeting concluded the next day, no demands were met. The next day, the administration sent the closure notice," the statement said.
"The unexpected and drastic measure to curb dissent at the campus space would only deter students from having access to education, which was the major purpose of protesting in the first place," the students said.
The students have also filed a second writ petition against the rising hostel fees.
One student, Prabakaran AK continues to be on his eighth day of hunger strike. The second year's Masters student took to social media to complain about all the harassment he's been facing from upper castes students. "To my extreme disappointment, I am being threatened by a few upper-caste students from my class, who have been mocking my step of sitting on a hunger strike. Being extremely insensitive, a student remarked that there would be no food poisoning now that students are sitting on hunger strike," he said.
The student shared screenshots of WhatsApp conversations about students demanding to meet him or threatening to come to where he was, "I'm deeply hurt by the insensitive comments and threatening behavior of my very own classmates. I am informing about the same and filed a complaint in Internal Complaint Committee and SC/ST and Equal Opportunity Cell regarding the casteist and insensitive behavior shown by a few classmates of mine."
He said that he will refuse to stay silent on the matter and requested the college administration to take action against the students who are allegedly harassing him.
